A 'disorderly' system, should PT3 be retained? - Muhammad Agus

The confusion arising from the recently-announced Form Three Assessment Examination (PT3) is viewed as not helping in adding a boost to the education system in the country.

Professor Datuk Dr Mohammad Agus Yusoff said, the responsible party should conduct a transparent monitoring amongst teacher and parents apart from taking into considerations their views.

“This is the best method. Dissatisfied parents are abound especially with the decision for the respective schools to conduct the assessments because answer sheets were marked and graded by the same teachers teaching in the same schools and not from the other schools or states.

“They questioned the justice to apply for the admission into boarding schools or other institutions.

“It is true that, PT3 questions are subjective which requires students to think. True, PT3 questions are Higher Level Thinking Skills (KBAT). But the question remains if, this (KBAT) will add the necessary boost to improve the education system in our country?,” he said, in the latest posting Facebook.

Mohammad Agus explained that based on his observations, parents and teachers have found that the examination is ‘muddled’, ‘disorderly’ and ‘messy’.

“They said, the format of the examination is ‘ad hoc’ in nature, announced a tad too late and the pupils were treated as ‘guinea pigs’ and the candidates as well as teachers were ill-informed about the examination in its preliminary stage,” he said.

Mohammad Agus was also made to understand that only 11 students from Tunku Kurshiah College, 10 from Tengku Muhammad Faris Petra Science Secondary School, one from Sekolah Datuk Abdul Razak (SDAR), one from Kota Tinggi Science Secondary School and 21 from Muzaffar Syah Science Secondary School and 26 from Tun Fatimah School have obtained all As in the PT3 examinations.

PT3 examinations have been implemented to replace Lower Secondary School Assessment examinations aimed to closely monitors students’ achievements in the range between Band 1 (weakest) and Band 6 (excellent).

An approximately 453,413 candidates nationwide sat for the PT3 examinations at 2,608 examination centres last October.

Up till Tuesday afternoon, Mohammad Agus jottings have received a staggering 2,200 ‘like’ and shared over 600 by Facebook account holders.